Fair Trade Coffee Cooperatives
Bit by bit, fair trade coffee has made a tangible difference in many
farmers lives. Children gain access to medical care and education,
where before these services were non-existent. Much needed
infrastructure is built, and progress against poverty is
achieved. These advancements are being made because people in consumer
countries realize that they can have a positive impact with the way
they choose to spend their money. Fair Trade Certified coffee is a
socially and environmentally responsible way to conduct trade between
developed and developing countries. This alternative form of trade has
the power to revolutionize the global economy, illustrating that the
global community can work together to provide for everyone's needs.
Fair Trade Farmers in:
Fair Trade Farmers in Mexico
Coffee has been an important export crop in Mexico for hundreds of
years, especially for the southern states. Coffee exports generate
about $700 million in national income. But for the majority of
small-scale farmers, the earnings from their coffee harvest remain
nothing short of miserable. Earnings from this labor-intensive crop do
not cover even their basic needs -- food, housing and health -- much
less do they provide the capital necessary in order for the
small-scale producer to consider personal or community development.
Today approximately 200,000 of the 283,000 coffee producers in Mexico
are indigenous campesinos with land holdings of less than 5 acres.
Most farmers continue to live in a state of acute poverty.
UCIRI, Oaxaca
In Oaxaca, Mexico, the Union of Indigenous Communities of the Isthmus
Region, established in 1982 now has over 5,000 families who farm
roughly 15 acres. The tree was chosen by UCIRI to represent the
structure of the organization. The roots are the families of 53
communities that make up UCIRI. The trunk stands for the General
Assembly of Delegates elected by each of the communities. This
assembly is the primary forum for the creation and implementation of
the Union's projects, signified by the branches. The fruit hanging
from the branches represents the results of their labor, shared by all
of its members. These fruits include schools, health clinics, home
visits by doctors, the training of nurses and dentists, and the
strengthening of their indigenous culture. This coop has helped create
the region's only public bus line; a hardware and farm supply center;
healthcare services; cooperative corn mills; an agricultural extension
and training program; accounting training; and the only secondary
school in the region.
S.S.S. Mut Vitz Bird
The cooperative Mut Vitz is primarily
comprised of Tzotzil Indigenous campesino farmers from the 6
municipalities of El Bosque, Simojovel, Bochil, Jitotol, San Andres
Larrainzar, and Chenalho. Since its few short years of existence, over
1,000 farmers have joined the cooperative, and will produce about
15,000 100-pound bags of high-altitude coffee this year. The producers
are currently in transition from "natural production" to "certifiable
organic" production methods and pay particular attention to all
appropriate practices for sustainable, shade-grown coffee.
Mut Vitz coordinates a network of 48 organic promoters working in 28
communities to promote organic production practices. Because of the
lack of government support for people living in this zone, producers
have been searching for autonomous economic and social alternatives to
support development in their communities. One critical aspect is the
creation of alternative, economic models, supporting social
development for the promotion of democracy, self-management and
sustainability, as well as covering the people's basic needs of food,
health care and local infrastructure.
Lucio Gonzalez Ruiz, Past President of the Board of Directors, spoke
recently about organics: "Years ago, a government coffee institution,
IMECAFE, gave away chemical fertilizers to the small producers and
encouraged them to use it. The farmers used it in their plants that
first year, and the plants looked very pretty and they produced very
well. The following year the fertilizer was no longer for free. Still,
some farmers went ahead and bought it. The third year the price for
the fertilizer went way up, and the farmers could not afford it any
more. So, many coffee plants died in this process. The plants got used
to the chemicals and they suffered without it and dried up. We
realized that the chemical is good for only one year; that for only
one year the plant produces coffee, but not after the second year.
Then the coffee plants die, and even if we plant new ones they do not
produce because the soil is already damaged with the chemicals. For
this reason we are doing organic work in all the parcels; we are
growing only organic coffee; we are using shade for our coffee plants
and we are diversifying our shade trees; and we are also using compost
in our corn fields or milpas."
The Crisis
For the last ten years, the price of coffee in the world market has
hovered around $1 per pound -- meaning that the farmers get between
30-50 cents. However, in recent months a crisis of overproduction has
pushed prices down to below 60 cents a pound -- less than the costs of
production.
The price crisis has hit Mexican farmers extremely hard. In November
of 2000, Mexican coffee producers called on the government to declare
a state of emergency in the country's coffee zones as coffee prices
hit a seven-year low in international markets. "There is a major
problem with harvesting the coffee in many growing zones because of
the lack of financing. Producers simply cannot afford to harvest at
the current prices," said Fernando Celis of the Coffee Producers
Associations Council, which represents 70,000 producers.
Serving as grim proof of the severity of the social crisis in Mexico
caused by low international coffee prices, six of the 14 found dead in
the Arizona desert in May of 2000 were identified as small coffee
farmers from the state of Veracruz.
Luis Hernandez Navarro of La Jornada, a national newspaper, writes;
"the alarm signals have gone on in the Mexican countryside. The coffee
growers have sent the country a distressing S.O.S. The new government
officials would do well not to disregard this message. The Chiapas
rebellion of 1994 was fed by the coffee crisis that began in 1989."
Resources on Fair Trade Coffee in Mexico
Articles
-
Coffee with a Cause -- A book for the Mexican consuming public
about Fair Trade, available in English and Spanish from:
Equiterre - Un juste cafe -- A just coffee
www.equiterre.qc.ca
email: istg@equiterre.qc.ca
-
The Strength of the Indigenous People of Mut Vitz
A superb video created by the farmers themselves
Chiapas Media Project
ph: 773.583.7728
www.chiapasmediaproject.org
-
Coffee crisis sends Mexico producers
to death in Arizona.
Dow Jones Newswires. May 29, 2001, by Maja Wallengren.
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Benefits for Mexican producers
who have tripled sales: "Fair Trade" Coffee Campaign Progresses
in the U.S.
La Jornada, April 11, 2001, by Jim Cason and David Brooks.
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S.O.S Coffee S.O.S.
La Jornada, February 13, 2001, by Luis Hernandez Navarro.
-
Mace, Bill.
Global Commodity Chains, Alternative
Trade and Small-Scale Coffee Production in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Miami University MA Thesis, Oxford, Ohio, 1998.
Fair Trade Farmers in Nicaragua
José Tomás Tórres is a coffee farmer in the
Segovia region of Nicaragua. Tomás is 29 years old, married,
and has four children. Coffee farmers have never been wealthy, but
recent drops in world coffee prices have made farmers' lives even
worse. Prices are currently at an all-time low, sliding below 80 cents
a pound last August, and reaching 49 cents in August of 2001. With
production costs averaging 90 cents a pound, coffee farmers, usually
forced to work within a vicious cycle of poverty and debt, are facing
starvation.
Not Tomás. Tomás is lucky because he is a member of the Luis Alberto
Vásquez cooperative. It is one of 45 Nicaraguan coops that make up
PRODECOOP, a larger Fair Trade coffee export cooperative that is part
of the even larger worldwide Fair Trade network. The international
Fair Trade community promotes social change by more than tripling the
incomes of farming families in developing nations.
Many children of coffee-farming families begin working around age 10
to help with the February harvest that coincides with the school year.
Tomás hopes that his children will never have to do so. Because of his
work in the cooperative, all four of the Tórres children are currently
in school. Tomás' dream is familiar to parents all over the world: he
wants his children to have the opportunities he never had.
The Luis Alberto Vásquez cooperative, founded in 1983 as a land grant
from the agrarian reform-inspired Sandinista government, allows this
humble dream to continue. The farmers never forget this. For example,
when Nicaraguan banks were privatized in 1993, cooperatives that had
been given their land by the government were given 72 hours to pay
back their debt, or lose their land. The cooperative appealed to
PRODECOOP for help. PRODECOOP responded by paying the debt for the
farmers. Otherwise, they would have lost their land forever.
Tomás and the other members see the coop as the only way to move
forward in one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere. "We are a
cooperative of 70 members, ready to harvest and to improve our yield
little by little, but always producing good quality coffee. For us,
the most important thing is maintain the good prices from Fair Trade."
PRODECOOP was born in 1993 to provide its member farmers assistance in
sustainably producing and marketing their coffee. Based in Esteli,
Nicaragua, it includes 45 cooperatives with over 2,420 families, most
of whom typically farm 7 to 11 acres.
PRODECOOP markets its members' coffee to Europe and the US. They also
provide much-needed loans for rehabilitating and improving coffee
production. Additionally, they provide advice and technical assistance
with the goal of improving self-management capabilities and productive
capacity for the member cooperatives.
Projects undertaken by PRODECOOP involve the construction of schools
and healthcare centers; training in administration; legal matters and
organizational issues. From sales to the fair trade market, PRODECOOP
will generate over $600,000 in premiums for the membership this year
alone. This is used to pay bank debt and retain landholdings, invest
in farm improvements, improve nutrition and education.
In October of 1998, Hurricane Mitch ripped through northern Nicaragua,
damaging homes, farms and roads. With the organizational strength they
had gained over the years, PRODECOOP was able to provide assistance
and channel outside aid, rebuilding homes and roads, and repairing
coffee processing equipment so that farmers would have incomes the
next year. Merling Preza Ramos, PRODECOOP's Director, told Global
Exchange that "the producer is offering coffee of very high quality,
and in return, asks that they are paid a fair price, the real price,
the real value of their product. Therefore, it's not a charity. Behind
the cup there are faces, there are people. People who are working to
produce a good quality coffee. The structure should be revised because
we can see that there is a lot of money here, and yet the small
producer is far away, often times without anything to eat."
PRODECOOP is also a leader in the organic coffee movement. Almost all
of their members grow their coffee organically under the shade of the
forest canopy. This results in better soil conservation, reduced
pollution of streams and groundwater, and the preservation of songbird
habitat in the trees above the coffee. PRODECOOP's organic,
shade-grown, fair trade coffee is one of the best tasting and most
renowned coffees in the gourmet coffee market today. The coffee
production is often integrated with other crops like corn, beans and
bananas, which are grown for the consumption of the families themselves.
Santiago Rivera has worked on coffee farms for 35 years. Joining
PRODECOOP has made a tremendous impact on his family's situation.
"Before I joined the fair trade movement, we didn't have extra money
to invest in the farm. We never had money to spend on pack animals, so
I had to haul the 100 pound sacks of coffee on my back all the way
down the hills. Since I joined PRODECOOP, our family income has
doubled and our efficiency has really gone up."
The crisis in the coffee industry has affected Nicaragua
significantly. An estimated 300,000 people have been left without work
in Nicaragua due to the collapse of this year's coffee cycle.
In April, 2001, some two thousand coffee farmers joined together for a
march in Managua to bring attention to the crisis. This action was
later followed by President Aleman's veto of the Coffee Moratorium
bill, which would have suspended all foreclosures due to debts and
unpaid loans for all coffee growers in the country for 300 days.
Despite the bill having been approved unanimously by the National
Assembly in April, pressure from the private sector, especially by the
banks, as well as from international organizations such as the
Inter-American Bank (IDB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), led
to the bill's eventual demise.
The social impact of the crisis is made apparent by the increasing
malnutrition among children of the region, which has already led to a
number of deaths. Matagalpa's parks have been transformed into
shantytowns of make-shift shelters as more than 5,000 people have
arrived in the city since January. Mayors of nine municipalities have
declared their own state of emergency as the national government has
failed to address the crisis with serious attention.
Funds must be raised to provide relief for hungry and out-of-work
coffee farmers. The current situation is dire and famine is imminent.
Now more than ever, Nicaraguan farmers deserve a Fair Trade opportunity.
Resources on Fair Trade in Nicaragua
Fair Trade Farmers in Costa Rica
A long history of agrarian reform as well as government programs
supporting small farmer cooperatives has created a greater
counterbalance between the interests of small farmers and those of
large plantations in Costa Rica. COOCAFÉ, the Consortium of Coffee
Cooperatives of Guanacaste & Montes de Oro, is an excellent model.
COOCAFÉ was founded in 1988 as a coalition of small producer
cooperatives working in the Fair Trade market in order to build an
economy of scale large enough to provide direct marketing and services
to the nine member cooperatives. In January of 2001, Global Exchange
visited COOCAFÉ to hear directly from producers about how Fair Trade
affects their lives.
Costa Rica was the first country in Central America to register coffee
exports in 1840. Coffee currently accounts for 11% of export revenues
and employs 5% of the nation's labor force, which represents 20% of
the rural workforce. Costa Rica accounts for 2.6% of world production
of coffee and 20% of Central American production. There are 72,942
coffee growers in Costa Rica, 45,000 of whom are members of
cooperatives (62%).
Although Costa Rica claims a stronger focus on small farmers than in
other countries in Latin America, concentration of land in the hands
of the few still disadvantages small producers. Most farmers (92%)
produce with less than 5 hectares, which amounts to 44% of the total
coffee production. In terms of medium-sized farmers, 6% of growers own
between 5-20 hectares, accounting for 21% of the national production.
However, while only 2% of coffee growers own more than 20 hectares,
they produce an entire 35% of the national crop. In terms of
processing, the concentration of mills reveals even more disparity; of
the 94 coffee mills (beneficios), only 25 are owned by cooperatives.
Additionally, there are only 35 roasters and 44 exporters in the country.
Representing nine of the smallest co-ops in the country, COOCAFÉ
works to improve standards of living and provides resources for crop
diversification, rainforest reforestation, women's development and
educational programs. They have twelve staff; 3 sales and marketing, 3
accounting and finance; 3 general administration; 1 quality control;
and 2 technical assistance and proposal writers who work directly for
coops. Founders of the Latin American Small Coffee Growers Front
(Frente Solidario), COOCAFÉ also works to strengthen co-ops
in other countries.
COOCAFÉ is a second level cooperative of nine producer cooperatives,
with a total of 4,000 small farmer members. The average landholding in
production of coffee is 2 hectares. They account for 3% of the total
coffee production of Costa Rica. Many of their members are also
involved in production of citrus, plantains, tubers (root vegetables
like yucca) and macadamias. Cooperatives of COOCAFÉ include
Pilangosta, Tilaran, Coopeldos, Santa Elena, Sarapiqui, Buenavista,
Montes de Oro, and Llano Bonito.
Although COOCAFÉ is a strong cooperative offering good quality Costa
Rican coffee, the Fair Trade market is still not yet big enough to
absorb all of their production. From 1993-2000, an average of 53% of
their sales went to the Fair Trade market, meaning that 47% had to be
sold at conventional terms to importers or to national exporters.
Their primary Fair Trade market is Holland, followed by Germany and
then the United States.
Since their founding ten year ago, they have earned over $7 million in
premiums from Fair Trade out of a total income of about $40 million.
How have they allocated these premiums?
- $2.8 million into the savings loan fund, so that they can give
loans to the cooperatives at a 2% interest rate; most bank loans are
22% in colones or 11% in dollars.
- $2.3 directly to growers
- $1.5 million commissions for COOCAFÉ
- $250,000 to the Frente Solidario (Latin American Small Coffee Growers Front)
- $250,000 to the Hijos del Campo educational scholarship program; see below
COOCAFÉ cooperative of Sarapiqui, Costa Rica One of the producer
cooperatives of COOCAFÉ is the Coope Sarapiqui. Sarapiqui has its own
processing mill, which has a capacity of about 15,000 QQ (quintales,
or 100 pounds) per year. Sarapiqui markets its own packaged coffee.
They also have two local stores for members to purchase goods at
reduced rates, as well as a delivery service for bulk cooperative
purchases of farm goods.
Coope Sarapiqui has invested significant resources into sustainable
coffee production. They have a large water treatment facility, with
three different lagoons with a capacity of 5,000 QQ (quintales; 100
pounds) each. Up on the hill, a large vermiculture compost mill churns
out beautiful organic compost. They are developing a model diversified
organic farm on the hillside above the mill. There they grow
impatients as groundcover (to attract the nematodes away from the
coffee), banana and other trees, and palmito, or the plant from which
comes the hearts of palm.
COOCAFÉ has made serious investments in environmental conservation
programs on the cooperative farms and processing mills. One is the
ten-fold reduction in the amount of water used in the processing to
separate the bean from the cherry pulp. The 9 cooperatives have
collectively invested $600,000 in these water treatment systems. They
have reduced the overall usage of chemicals by half. The Montes de Oro
cooperative boasts the only hi-tech solar dryer in Costa Rica.
Coopeldos is certified organic, and Montes de Oro and Santa Elena are
in the three year transition period towards organic. They have serious
investments in reforestation programs (see below). They have reduced
wood use in dryers, using the coffee husk instead to fuel the drying
ovens.
A recent document entitled Fair Trade in Costa Rica: An Impact Report
gives concrete examples of some of the achievements of COOCAFÉ from
working together in the Fair Trade market. The information in the
following summary is taken from that report by Loraine Ronchi,
University of Sussex, l.ronchi@sussex.ac.uk
Like its member cooperatives, the management and departments of
COOCAFÉ are accountable to an Administrative Council elected by the
General Assembly. Most major cooperative policy decisions are made in
the General Assembly, the highest decision-making body, held once or
twice a year to which all members are invited to attend.
Some of the benefits and programs of COOCAFÉ include the following:
Financial
The Fair Trade premium is the difference between the higher price paid
by the Fair Trade market and the conventional market. COOCAFÉ
cooperatives have decided to divide the premium as follows: 15% to the
Development Fund, 15% to the Social Capital Fund, and 70% to the
Producer's Fund for distribution to producers by the primary level
cooperatives. Over the ten years of operation, the producer's fund has
distributed $1,260,000 to some 4,000 affiliated small coffee producers
and their families. The Social Capital Fund provides much-needed
credit to the farmers in a revolving loan fund. Records of coffee
prices demonstrate consistently higher prices paid to cooperative
farmers than to farmers in the area who were not involved in Fair Trade.
Preserving landholdings
The best indicator of the financial impact of Fair Trade on the
cooperatives is witnessed by the continued existence of the
cooperative in times of low prices and high production costs. "In the
period from 1989 to 1994, the Fair Trade market and COOCAFÉ were
essential to the survival not only of the Cooperative Sarapiqui: to
ALL of the cooperatives of the consortium," says the Manager of Coope
Sarapiqui. Many other cooperatives closed their doors during this time
period, leaving the farmers with no marketing options.
Development of final products
The export department of COOCAFÉ entirely credits the successful
production of final products to the assistance received from Fair
Trade organizations. The experience has had a positive impact that is
only inadequately described in financial terms. Producing for the
final market has given them an important understanding of the full
coffee marketing chain and hence allowed them to learn a great deal
about a number of markets and build capacity of the organization to
independently develop and control their own marketing.
Solidarity work and education
Working with the Fair Trade market has also positively impacted the
social development of the cooperatives through their ability to carry
out solidarity work and education. Most of the member cooperatives
conduct educational programs concerning the benefits of cooperativism,
and proactively attempt, through education, to instill a sense of
solidarity in their members. They also consistently and financially
support the Frente Solidario, a San José-based solidarity and activist
body of Latin American coffee producers.
In 1996 the nine cooperatives in the consortium established a
foundation known as Fundación Hijos del Campo, which operates three
programs; secondary and university scholarships and an extension
program. In the first two years of inception, the secondary school
scholarships were awarded to 71 schools at an average donation of $360
per school, directly benefiting 5061 students. From 1997-1999 the
university scholarships directly benefited 574 students, 54% of whom
are women. COOCAFÉ also promotes an educational extension fund
aimed at bridging the enormous gap between the quality and
accessibility of urban versus rural education. Funds from the Fair
Trade market are used to administer the three programs.
Environment
Over the ten years of operation, more than $3,500,000 has been
invested in environmental protection and development programs. A
recent report by a independent environmental auditing association
traced the source of these funds to the Funcadión Café
Forestal, which is entirely funded by sales from COOCAFÉ's
Café Forestal brand of roasted coffee to the fair trade markets
($1 per kg sold) as well as COOCAFÉ's Social Capital
Fund. Projects include: environmental education and research,
converting the entire beneficio (mill) to 'Clean Technology,' the
development of hydroelectricity programs, developing coffee dryers
using renewable resources, conversion to intercropping programs with
shade trees, reforestation, and conversion to organic coffee
production.
Thanks to Loraine Ronchi for the above information. For more
information or to contact Coocafe directly, email Director Carlos
Vargas at coocafe@sol.racsa.co.cr.
You can purchase Coocafé's coffee through
Equal Exchange and
Café Campesino.
Fair Trade Farmers in Colombia
Like oil in the Middle East, coffee has been the fuel for much of
Colombia's economic and political development.
In fact, Colombia is the only country in the world with a National
Coffee Federation that pays a subsidy when international prices are
low and provides social services and infrastructure improvements in
coffee-growing regions. To fund this work, it taxes exports heavily
when international prices are high. The Federation's export agency,
EXPOCAFE, exports about half of the country's coffee.
Coffee has been a vital source of rural development income in this
nation, the second largest coffee producer in the world, home to about
560,000 coffee farms. Railroads and roads were built to move coffee
from the cool slopes of Antioquia and its southern neighbors to the
Pacific coast, where ports were built to ship it out. Coffee proceeds
financed the development of such other exports, as well as rural
clinics and schools. Colombia's coffee belt became one of the richest
and most stable regions of the country.
Small farmers have always been the dominant mode of production, in
contrast to other Latin American countries where large plantations
controlled the growing of such commodities as coffee, sugar, and
bananas. Today, 96 percent of the country's coffee farmers tend plots
smaller than seven acres.
The bonanza years of the 60s and 70s, when cleverly marketed Colombian
coffee was traded on the commodities market for near $3 a pound, have
ended in crisis. Colombian coffee now sells for about 62 cents a pound
on the New York Board of Trade, generating a mere 10 percent of the
country's legal export income. It used to account for more than half.
Assn of Organic Coffee Farmers of Colombia
Colombians, like coffee farmers around the world, have organized
themselves into cooperatives to help gain more of the export income
from their crop. One coffee cooperative, Asociacion de Caficultores
Organicos de Colombia (ACOC), has an integrated agricultural approach
to growing coffee. Members of this organization compost all the
organic waste from processing their coffee in large beds of
earthworms. The earthworms turn coffee pulp, and all other organic
matter, including animal manure, into rich humus, which the farmers
add back to the soil surrounding the root zone of their coffee trees.
Coop founder Luis Enrique Aranzazu is certain that his trees are
healthier and more productive since he began applying compost as
fertilizer. Another coop founder concurs. "I believe my Colombia
variety trees, which are now organic, are definitely returning to the
yield they had when they were chemically dependent."
ACOC boasts a very modest roasting facility which permits ACOC to
roast, grind, and package its own brand of coffee, "Madremonte," the
only roasted, organic coffee available in Colombia. Furthermore, the
project lends ACOC a great deal of autonomy--the coop members control
the product from field to store shelf.
ACOC is not alone in its pioneering quest. The group receives
technical assistance from The Peasant Institue (Instituto Mayor
Campesino--IMCA) in Buga, an organic farm research center run by
Jesuit priest. The Institute is committed to improving campesinos'
lives by offering economic programs utilizing cheap, local resources
in a sustainable fashion. New coop members must begin the transition
to organic production methods. They receive training--also known as
"earthworm indoctrination"--from the founding members of the coop and
IMCA's technical staff. IMCA is currently networking with similar
organizations in Central and South America, exploring ways to set up a
local solution to third party certification, owned and controlled by
Latin Americans.
Regional Indigenous Council of Caldas
Another coffee cooperative is CRIDEC, the Regional Indigenous Council
of Caldas, formed in 1984. It serves nearly 80,000 people on four
reservations and provides technical support for farming, education,
and promotion of indigenous culture.
In recent years, CRIDEC has started exporting coffee to the fair trade
market in Europe and America. Since 1992, CRIDEC has earned over
$800,000 in fair trade coffee exports. A committee consisting of a
representative from each reservation ensures that the funds are used
democratically, for the good of the community. These funds have
enabled CRIDEC to build homes for 75 families, three reservation
headquarters and two drying sites, to hire consultants, to start a
revolving loan fund for agricultural supplies, and to work on a number
of special projects.
Plan Colombia
In 2000 the US Congress voted to send $1.3 billion in US aid to
Colombia, allegedly to help fight the war on drugs. However, most of
the money will go to the military, which is well known for massive
human rights violations in the country with the highest homicide rate
in the Western Hemisphere. Human rights advocates say the aid will
only exacerbate violence and displacement in the region.
Low world coffee prices are also having their effect. As farming
coffee becomes increasing less viable as a source of income, more and
more coffee farmers are turning to growing coca or opium poppies. Part
of the mostly military aid package pays coca farmers to uproot their
crops in favor of legal ones, an "alternative development" strategy.
But here in rugged southeastern Antioquia and across its river border
in Caldas province, the switch is working in reverse.
According to the Washington Post, in the town of Pensilvania, in
eastern Caldas, Mayor Jose Oscar Gonzales said coffee has been
uprooted in favor of coca in the nearby towns of El Verdal, Playa
Rica, Pueblo Nuevo and La Ceba. In all, he said, about 440 acres of
coca have replaced coffee. The plots are tiny, only enough to cover
only a fraction of an acre.
But Gonzales predicted that the 100 or so farmers who have made the
change to coca, which can be harvested three times a year to coffee's
one, are just the vanguard. "This isn't pressure from the guerrillas,"
he said. "This is poverty. Look, coca brings in 10 times the amount as
coffee right now. This is the heart of the crisis."
Americans concerned about the impact of drugs in the US can help
Colombians gain security for their families through purchasing Fair
Trade coffee from Colombia.
Resources on coffee in Colombia
-
Equal Exchange
; ph: 781.830.0303
www.equalexchange.com
email: info@equalexchange.com
-
Coffee and Conflict in Colombia, 1886-1910.
By Bergquist, Charles W.
Durham: Duke University Press, 1986.
-
Harvesting Coffee, Bargaining Wages; Rural Markets in Colombia, 1975-90.
By Ortiz, Sutti.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999.
-
Coffee, Society, and Power in Latin America.
By Roseberry, William, Lowell Gudmundson, and Mario Samper Kutschbach, eds.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.
For more information on how the coffee crisis is affecting farmers in
Colombia, please see:
For information about Plan Colombia and the struggle for democracy
and human rights, see: our Colombia page
Fair Trade Farmers in Guatemala
The coffee sector in Guatemala is a reflection of the dichotomy that
characterizes the whole country: a large number of smallholders
(campesinos) that produce small quantities of coffee, and a small
number of large and very large plantations (fincas) that produce the
largest share of coffee in Guatemala. Smallholders operate
individually, or are organized in co-operatives or associations, and
sell their coffee through these organizations or to intermediaries.
Large coffee plantations either sell to exporting firms,
intermediaries, or directly to foreign buyers.
Guatemala's current development model grew out of a CIA-backed
military coup in 1954. The CIA engineered the coup to protect the
interests of the United Fruit Company from a land reform process which
threatened to redistribute 210,000 acres of idle United Fruit land.
The coup overthrew the "ten years of spring" led by two moderate
presidents who reformed some of Guatemala's basic social inequalities.
Under Presidents Juan Jose Arevalo and Jacobo Arbenz, Guatemala had
experienced its first chance at real democracy: the government gave
100,000 landless families plots of unused land, instituted the
country's first social security system, legalized unions -- allowing
one-third of the workers to become formally organized -- and
dramatically expanded public education and literacy. The series of
military dictatorships which followed reversed these reforms. Today,
Guatemala has the most unequal land tenure in all of Latin America,
with less than 2 percent of the landowners controlling 65 percent of
the farmland. At the other end of the scale, approximately 27 percent
of the total population is landless and forced to work as part-time
wage laborers. As more land has become concentrated in fewer hands in
the last 30 years, the average size of small farms has declined from
1.71 to 0.79 hectares.
The small farmers who do exist in Guatemala try to eke out a living
amongst national policies hostile to their economic interests. That
makes the need for Fair Trade ever more pressing in Guatemala. There
are approximately seven Fair Trade coffee cooperatives in Guatemala,
including Manos Campesinas and the V'al Voq Quyol Chajul cooperative.
Global Exchange visited Manos Campesinas in January 2001. Their
director, Jerónimo Bollen, shared information with us about the need
they have to expand the market. jbollen@intelnet.net.gt
Thanks also to Joel Perkes for providing additional information.
jperkes@hotmail.com
Manos Campesinas started in 1997 as an association of six producer
cooperatives in the Quetzaltenango region of Guatemala. The six
cooperatives are comprised of 620 farmer members. With the average
family consisting of 5 or 6 members the association provides income
for approximately 3,720 people. The majority of members have less than
one hectare of coffee planted.
The main goal of Manos Campesinas is to promote and market the coffee
of the six producer cooperative associates. In addition, Manos
Campesinas also gives technical support to the producers, mostly on
improvement and diversification of their production, improvement of
their administration, and promotion of the participation of women.
Manos Campesinas exported their first container (38,000 pounds) of
coffee in 1998. In 2000, they exported 6 containers, and hope to
export between 8 and 10 in 2001. They sell about 40% of their
production to the Fair Trade market. The other 60% stays in the
national market, where at least selling collectively as a cooperative
they get a better market than what the intermediaries would pay
individual farmers. A 7th group of farmers joined the cooperative in
2000. They estimate that they have to export about 20 containers to be
in a point of equilibrium where their income covers their expenses,
which they hope to achieve by 2003 or 2004. Currently Manos Campesinos
is dependent on international donations. They get no help from the
government or banks because they don't have title to the land.
They estimate their costs to be about $.45 per pound. If they sell to
other exporters in the national market, the price is about $.35-.40
per pound; if they export directly to the international market the
prices is $.60-.70. The current 8-year low in international coffee
prices is a major problem and worry for the entire cooperative. How do
the producers deal with low prices? Generally through lowering their
investment in the farms and suffering severe poverty.
Each farm produces fruits and vegetables grown for personal
consumption. They still have to buy some food items, although they do
produce a lot of their own food. Some of the farmers mentioned that
they want to grow more food for domestic consumption next year because
they can often grow 2 or 3 crops in a year, instead of only 1 when
they grow coffee. They want to be able to eat better.
All 6 farms use traditional natural farming and shade-grown methods.
However, only three out of the six cooperatives are currently able to
export their coffee in the organic market. That's because the other
three cooperatives grow coffee at lower altitudes and therefore have a
harder time finding buyers. Therefore they're not getting Fair Trade
prices and haven't been able to afford organic certification. Organic
certification costs about $2000 initially and then another $2000 every
3 years.
The 3 communities that export are doing very well. They have schools,
health care, technically assistance and support. The 3 others are in
transition to organic and are improving. The best thing going for them
at the moment is that each family is equal in the association so that
what money they do earn each year from the harvest is equally and
fairly distributed.
In response to the world market price dipping below $.60 per pound in
February of 2001, Jerónimo Bollen, Director of Manos Campesinas, told
us that "with world market prices as low as they are right now, we see
that a lot of farmers cannot maintain their families and their land
anymore. Several producers of our organisation had to decide to go and
look for work in the capital, leaving their families behind. To avoid
this kind of family and community desintegration, we need Fair Trade
now more than ever."
One cooperative Fair Traders such as Equal Exchange works with is
V'al Voq Quyol Chajul Cooperative in the Guatemalan highlands.
Guatemala's military-led war waged against the peasant farmers in
the 1980s ravaged this indigenous Ixil Mayan community. The
cooperative of 2,500 members -- 90% of whom live in areas not
accessible by car -- are building back their strength and working to
maintain the unique Ixil culture while building up its villages
economically. Examples of this are their coffee exports to the fair
trade market in Europe and the U.S., as well as a women-run store in
the capital city selling handmade, indigenous crafts and
clothing. With the money from fair trade premiums, Chajul has created
its own bank and health clinic. The cooperative's Center for
Development provides organic agriculture and leadership training
working to make farming a desirable choice for the children of today's
coffee farmers.
Cooperativa La Voz Que Clama En El Desierto
In 1977, there were several groups operating in San Juan La Laguna,
helping men and women by providing them with small credits for
agriculture and handicraft operations. In time, these groups no longer
had the capacity to cover the needs of their members and it was
decided to form a cooperative with the members of these groups. The
first meeting was held under the shade of a cottonwood tree, "La
Ceiba" (the national tree of Guatemala) in the courtyard of the old
municipal building.
At this meeting, it was explained that the principal objective was to
"procure the economic and social improvement of members and develop
agricultural activities, especially coffee, onions and other regional
crops". At this first meeting, many people were motivated to join the
cooperative, which then started with 35 members of both sexes. There
was discussion of the name to be given to the cooperative, but there
were already too many organizations with the name St. John the
Baptist, Patron Saint of the town. The members of the cooperative
wanted a name which would honor their Patron Saint and so decided to
call it "La Voz que Clama en el Desierto" or "A Voice Crying in the
Wilderness" because John the Baptist preached in the desert.
"A Voice Crying in the Wilderness" Cooperative has its headquarters on
the banks of beautiful Lake Atitlán, in the district of San Juan La
Laguna, Department of Sololá, at an altitude of 1,585 meters above
sea level (5,000 feet). It has 96 members, 86 of them active producers
of certified organic coffee and members of OCIA International
Company. The cooperative has its own wet mill with modern technology
for processing and paved yards for drying parchment coffee. It
delivers its products to international roasting firms, both American
and European.
The harvest of the 86 members is processed in a wet mill built with
the support of the USAID/ANACAFE project. It features ecological
characteristics that give the coffee a better appearance and minimize
the pollution. The 1,500 60-kilo bags produced by the cooperative are
the Strictly Hard Bean (SHB) type, which is in great demand
internationally because of its organic features.
The members and townspeople of San Juan La Laguna belong to the
Tzutuhil ethnic group, who inherited their culture and hard-working
nature. There are still vestiges of the civilization at the bottom of
Lake Atitlán. They preserve their traditions and it is a region
rich in the production of handmade textiles and other handicrafts,
which are exported worldwide.
Organic cultivation, suitable climatic conditions and the special
characteristics of Atitlán coffee have helped to create a good
image internationally. The cooperative has sold to companies who
recognize the attributes of the cultivation and preparation of this
coffee.
The cooperative's social and economic projection and the quality of
the coffee have drawn many visitors from the coffee sector and
tourists who visit the lake.
"A Voice Crying in the Wilderness" is a cooperative organization that
is promoting the development of its community.
Thanks to Peace Coffee for
this information.
Resources on Fair Trade in Guatemala:
Fair Trade Farmers in El Salvador
Coffee is El Salvador's primary export product. Over half of the
population makes its living growing, harvesting or processing it.
However, since coffee was introduced to the country in the
mid-nineteenth century, its cultivation and sale has been controlled
by a very small number of wealthy landowners. This small oligarchy
amassed immense fortunes while thousands of landless people lived on
the edge of survival. In 1980, rural discontent with this situation
forced the government to enact an agrarian reform to distribute land.
Farmers living in rural areas of El Salvador still do not face an easy
life: over 60% of rural Salvadorans live in poverty. Small-scale
coffee farmers, faced with poverty and low coffee prices, organized
cooperatives to share resources and earn a better future for their families.
FESACORA, the Salvadoran Federation of Agrarian Reform Cooperatives,
was founded in 1982 and currently consists of 13,598 individual
members grouped in 118 democratically managed cooperatives in El
Salvador. They are supported by Oxfam America and first marketed their
coffee under Fair Trade terms in the US through Fair Trade pioneer
Equal Exchange.
The powerful earthquake that struck on January 13, 2001 has added
disaster to the incredible challenges faced by people of El Salvador.
To date, the earthquake has claimed over 600 lives and injured over
2,600. There are nearly 46,000 displaced people as a consequence of
the destruction.
The earthquake has also affected coffee farmer coops. Among 36 member
cooperatives, FESACORA reported 34 deaths, and APECAFE lost two
members. All of these co-ops have suffered damage to homes and
buildings and the Federation has begun to address the immediate needs
of food, shelter and medicines in these communities. Most of all, their
future ability to grow coffee and hence feed their families is in danger.
By selling their coffee to the fair trade market, FESACORA helps these
co-ops rebuild their communities after fifteen years of civil war. One
of these cooperative is located in Las Lajas, in the Municipality of
Coatepeque. Coffee farmer Francisco Aviles Orellana, one of the
members of the Las Lajas Cooperative, says:
"Before being a member of the cooperative I was a poor landless
day-laborer who worked for the landowners, a Swedish family. With the
agrarian reform of 1980, my family and I benefitted with the
acquisition of land and then created the cooperative of which we are
members...
"[T]he benefits have been many, but the most important benefits are
having access to education for my children, and access to health
services at the community clinic that the cooperative helped to
finance. Before we didn't have water in our homes, but the cooperative
dug a well and now we have our own water which is paid for by the
cooperative. The cooperative has helped all of the community a lot.
The clinic serves everyone, the school accepts children from beyond
our community and the water arrives to the houses of people that
aren't members of the cooperative, so I think that the cooperative has
definitely helped the whole community."
Resources on Coffee in El Salvador:
-
Oxfam America
; ph: 617.728.2437
www.oxfamamerica.org
email: lbrody@oxfamamerica.org
-
Equal Exchange
; ph: 781.830.0303
www.equalexchange.com
email: reverts@equalexchange.com
-
Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
www.cispes.org
email: cispesnatl@people-link.com
-
Coffee, Society, and Power in Latin America.
Roseberry, William, Lowell Gudmundson, Mario Samper Kutschbach, eds.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.
-
Coffee and Power: Revolution and the Rise of Democracy in Central America.
Paige, Jeffrey M.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997.
-
Bitter Grounds. 1998. A novel about three generations
of women from different classes through the history of the coffee industry.
Benitez, Sandra.
Fair Trade Farmers in Honduras
La Central de Cooperativas Cafetaleras de Honduras (La Central) formed
in 1997 with the objectives of direct coffee exportation and rural
development. It is a national network of 61 coffee producing
cooperative and pre-cooperative groups throughout ten departments of
Honduras, representing over 6000 small-to-medium-scale coffee
producers and their families. In addition, a technical team
coordinates commercial activity, administration, rural development
projects, training, and communications between cooperatives. La
Central is a decentralized and democratic organization that actively
encourages grassroots participation in its decision-making processes.
Furthermore, elected representatives who are accountable to their
cooperatives represent La Central in national and international
political institutions.
For La Central's members, coffee cultivation is more than solely
growing a top-quality product--it is a way of life that unites families
towards cooperative goals and community solidarity. La Central aims to
improve trade relations with international coffee importers, which
benefits both coffee trader and farmer alike.
Organic coffee production is one of the cornerstones of La Central
principles. The vast majority of its members are small-scale producers
who farm the traditional way, using mixed shade cover augmented by
natural fertilizers to cultivate their crop. These techniques provide
an ecosystem rich in wildlife and do not contaminate waterways or
cause soil erosion. In addition, La Central is continually extending
its methods of organic production. Last year, several cooperatives
started to use coffee threshing machinery designed to conserve the use
of water. Furthermore, La Central is fighting for the establishment
for a regionally accepted organic certification that will encourage
small farmers to follow organic production techniques.
La Central's mission is to create a Honduran society free of abject
poverty and social injustices. To accomplish this goal, it is
essential to operate in areas beyond coffee production. Therefore, La
Central has worked in partnership with other cooperative, peasant,
indigenous, and other social movements as well as international
development agencies in an array of community-based projects directed
towards poverty reduction and regional infrastructure development.
These projects have established and improved housing, roads,
sanitation, schools, and medical centers. For example, a joint La
Central and Centro Cooperativo Sueco project built houses in San
Juancito after the Hurricane Mitch disaster.
La Central also provides financial services to those normally excluded
from society. Lack of access to credit perpetuates the misery of
subsistence living for many Honduran coffee farmers. La Central
launched its Local Alternative Finance (LAF) initiative in 1999 to
provide financial services that assist small farmers. Through this
program, members can receive credit at favorable rates to facilitate
greater and higher quality production levels.
Finally, La Central realizes that its greatest responsibility is to
its members' education and training so that they can prosper. It
regularly organizes workshops to suit local needs whereby members can
learn how to manage their cooperatives better, understand how the
world commodity exchanges function, and share techniques regarding
best practices in coffee production. It also publishes day-by-day and
bi-monthly reports on the coffee market as well as transmitting a
daily radio program, "La Hora del Café," in order to provide its
members comprehensive educational and informational services.
Fair Trade Farmers in Peru
One strong fair trade cooperative in Peru is CEPICAFE, started in
1995, an association of small-scale coffee farmers in Northern Peru.
It is made up of 25 grassroots organizations. All of its coffee, which
is grown in the shade of fruit trees, is grown by family units.
CEPICAFE acts as a price regulator and prevents intermediaries and
private companies from colluding to pay farmers artificially low
prices. This benefits co-op members as well as raising incomes
throughout the entire coffee growing region. For instance, in 1998 the
1,000 members of CEPICAFE sold half of their production to fair trade
organizations. Lacking additional fair trade markets for their
remaining coffee, they had to sell to Peruvian exports. Coffee sold to
the fair trade organizations averaged $1.37 per pound. The other
coffee averaged 99 cents per pound. Farmers received nearly 40 percent
more because of fair trade. Frederico Rivera Morena of CEPICAFE
explained that with the 38 cent per pound difference, "With the money
that arrived, I have bought clothing for my children, made home
improvements, and renovated my farm."
CEPICAFE has been working on behalf of its members by providing the
families in its coffee-growing region with a forum where they can make
themselves heard by the Peruvian government. It aims to become a union
organization in which the members are permanently involved in
democratic decision-making processes. CEPICAFE provides its members
with access to credit, and also offers permanent training in organic
cultivation techniques and aspects of quality control by its advisory
organization called PIDECAFE, a non-governmental organization that
specializes in coffee.
Farmers also come together not only to improve their livelihood but
also to steward the land they live on. Juan Ticliahuanca Ticliahuanca
of CEPICAFE explains the first steps the community took as an
organized cooperative by saying, "We started with 20,000 seedlings in
1997, including 3,000 fruit trees and native trees." These trees not
only provide shade for the coffee, but also prevent soil erosion,
nourish the earth, and provide a habitat for wildlife. Growing the
seedlings is another way the community comes together. There is a lot
more effort being put into cooperation between men and women members.
In the days when we all work together in planting a nursery, there is
a lot of collaboration and participation and we do good work," is how
CEPICAFE grower Teofilo Santos Huaman explains it.
Another strong fair trade cooperatives in Peru is the Agrarian
Cooperative Central of Cuzco (COCLA). COCLA also lends money to its
members. Whereas a small farmer in Peru has no access to credit (and
thus may be forced into debt to local moneylenders), COCLA's members
have access to credit at 12-13%. Farmers use this money to increase
plantings of shade trees and coffee trees, invest in tarps and
equipment that improve quality, and pay for transporting their coffee
to the coop's warehouse. Ninety eight percent of all loans are paid on
time, testifying to their efficacy and their member's gratitude.
In Aquilayoc, members of COCLA were organized enough that they went to
the electric company after the devastating flood in Huadquina and
said, "If you give us the poles, we will put them in the ground."
COCLA members determined their own future through the strength of
their cooperative and its development vision. They did not have to
rely on charitable donations.
The strength of these fair trade cooperatives in Peru can be seen in
COCLA member-owner Marcelino Cuentas Baca's, statement "We've had
great success in the past months in keeping prices (in the region) up,
getting materials for wells and depulping stations, making loans in
January and February, providing emergency transportation, paying
year-end dividends, etc.--and so there are lots of producers in the
region requesting to become members (of our cooperative)."
Fair Trade Farmers in Tanzania
The Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union is Africa's oldest coffee
cooperative. KNCU was founded in 1924 as a marketing organization for
the indigenous farmers of the Chagga tribe living on the slopes of
Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain. Along with all of
Tanzania's coffee cooperatives, KNCU was abolished by the government
in 1976, but then reinstated in 1984. At this stage, law required that
all coffee farmers belong to a cooperative in onrder to sell their
crops. In 1991, Tanzania introduced a new Cooperative Act under which
the co-ops became voluntary membership organizations. Today, KNCU has
about 135,000 members from 90 local co-ops. Their smooth, mild beans
are considered to be among the finest in Africa.
Tanzanian KNCU coffee is available from
Equal Exchange.
